Trump tells ‘tall tales’ on Telemundo about his relationship with Hispanics

As of June 7—869 days into his term of office—President Donald Trump had told, 10,796 lies and misstatements to the American people, according to The Washington Post

That number undoubtedly has increased over the past few weeks. And, CNN reports, it grew by at least three after the president spoke exclusively with Noticiero Telemundo anchor José Díaz Balart on June 20 for his Spanish-language news update.

During that television face-to-face, Donald Trump made three glaringly inaccurate statements about the Hispanic population, alone. He also made false representations about Chinese immigration to the United States; and about the Veterans Choice healthcare program—saying he had passed that legislation, which was, in fact, signed into law by former President Barack Obama.

Family separations

But that was far from Trump’s only fabrication concerning Obama. According to CNN, during the interview, Trump claimed that the former president had created—and then left him with—a family separation policy.

“If you’re smuggling a child, we’re going to prosecute you, and that child will be separated from you, probably, as required by law. If you don’t want your child to be separated, then don’t bring them across the border illegally,” Sessions said.

It is technically true, CNN notes, that Trump is the one who ended the separation policy: in June 2018, he signed an executive order to detain families together. But he was ending his own policy, not Obama’s, and he only signed the order after a furious public outcry.

Popularity among Hispanics

During the same interview, much to the incredulity of Díaz-Balart, CNN reports, Trump claimed he had seen a significant increase in his popularity with Hispanics—a 17-point spike that had brought him to 50% approval.

Trump: “Well, right now I’m at 50%…for a Republican, I’m at 50%. I went up 17 points. You know why? The Hispanics…” Díaz-Balart: “I have not seen any poll that says…” Trump: “Well, we’ll show it to you.” Díaz-Balart : “With all due respect, that you have…” Trump: “We’ll show it to you.” Díaz-Balart: “50% of the Latino support…” Trump: “No, no. We’ll show it to you. But let me tell you. We went up 17 points. You saw that. I went up 17 points because I’m tough at the border. Because the Hispanics want toughness at the border. They don’t want people coming and taking their jobs. They don’t want criminals to come because they understand the border better than anybody.”

CNN Facts First:Trump does not have a 50%t approval rating among Hispanics, according to the latest public polling.

According to the cable news network, there was one January poll, by Marist/NPR/PBS, that showed that his approval rating with Latinos had indeed increased to 50 %. Trump immediately began touting this poll upon its release, and it might have been what he was referring to in the Telemundo interview five months later.

But polls conducted after January, including polls from the same pollster, have not shown an approval rating even close to 50%.

Separate Census Bureau data on household income cited by CNN also showed a steady increase for Hispanics during the Obama era. In 2017 dollars, mean income for Hispanics increased from $59,818 in 2009, Obama’s first year, to $68,252 in 2016, his last full year.

The 2017 figure, under Trump, was a record: $68,319. But this was a continuation of the Obama-era trend, and it was an increase of a mere 0.001%.

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President Donald Trump has never been one “to look a gift horse in the mouth”—but now, his avarice may have consequences. On September 13, a federal appeals court in New York ruled that a lawsuit accusing the POTUS of violating the Emoluments Clause— Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 of the U.S. Constitution—could proceed after a lower court had thrown out the case.

And CREW is just one of the many watchdog organizations that have raised concerns about the president’s decision not to put his company in a blind trust, according to The Hill.

Indeed, several of his actions in recent weeks seem to have been geared to generate profits for his properties—among them, his talk of hosting the next G7 meeting at his Trump National Doral Golf Club in Miami; his “suggestion” that Vice President Pence stay at his Turnberry golf resort in Scotland; and his deal with the USAF to do pricey refuels at the nearby airport and layovers at TrumpTurnberry.

Multiple lawsuits have alleged Trump is in violation of the Emoluments Clause , but none has gone to court until the September 13 decision cleared the way.

“I got sued on a thing called emoluments. Emoluments. You ever hear of the word? Nobody ever heard of it before,” Trump said at a speech in Pennsylvania last month. “And what it is is presidential harassment, because [the presidency] is costing me a fortune, and I love it.”

“This Committee has already covered the central findings of the Special Counsel’s investigation,” he said, adding, “The President’s 2016 campaign asked for and received the assistance of the Russian government. Key figures from the campaign then lied to federal investigators about it. The Special Counsel found that, at least ten times, the President took steps to interfere with the investigation. In at least five of those incidents, the Special Counsel concluded that all of the elements necessary to charge obstruction of justice had been met.”

“And, of course, this Committee and others have gone to court to secure evidence that has been withheld from Congress on indefensible legal grounds. Former White House Counsel Donald McGahn is not ‘absolutely immune’ from appearing before this Committee. We require his testimony for our obstruction investigation. But the President has vowed to ‘fight all of the subpoenas,’ and this, too, is conduct that requires a congressional response.

“As Members of Congress—and, in particular, as members of the House Judiciary Committee—we have a responsibility to investigate each of these allegations and to determine the appropriate remedy. That responsibility includes making a judgment about whether to recommend articles of impeachment.”

The additional tools approved on Wednesday would, the Post says, allow the committee to designate certain hearings as impeachment sessions, allow counsels to question witnesses publicly, permit some evidence to remain private and allow the president’s counsel to respond in writing to evidence and testimony.

Trump “has trampled the Constitution,” said Representative Steve Cohen (D-Tennessee), a committee member who has drafted his own articles, threatened to introduce them and then backed off after learning of the panel’s plans to eventually craft its own. “There is just so much you could go after. It’s going to be refining it down to the most salient.”

Although President Donald Trump already has “weaponized” his Twitter account to provide continual commentary on the politics, people, issues, and media that are top-of-mind in the Oval Office, soon he will have another way to get his message out to the U.S. electorate—an “America First” app.

Supporters who download the all-in-one app are expected to be able to sign up for a Make America Great Again rally, canvas a neighborhood, or call voters—maybe even register to vote as the campaign looks to turn passive supporters into activists.

Trump‘s campaign didn’t respond to questions about the app, which originally had been scheduled to debut this summer. But Brad Parscale, Trump’s digital media director turned campaign manager, has spoken about his goal to directly contact and target millions more supporters than the campaign did in 2016.

The campaign already has acquired 200 million voter files from the Republican National Committee, Politico notes—and is spending millions on digital ads, texts, and rally attendee RSVPs to collect data on voters.

Indeed, the app could be used to gather supporter preferences, and then to create profiles that could be used to tailor specific messages to specific voters—down to the color of an ad.

What’s more, the app will not only offer a way to hear directly from Trump, but it give millions of diehard Trump voters a way to communicate with each other privately.

Former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, who worked for the RNC during the 2016 election, told Politico that Twitter, Facebook, and other social platforms allow Trump to communicate with all types of people while the campaign app will rally the base.

“It’s not this or that. It’s all of the above,” Spicer said. “I think in this day and age, it adds one more element.”

However, Air Force plane stops at Prestwick have increased from 180 in 2017 to 257 in 2018—and 259 so far, including 220 overnight stays, in 2019. That means lots of money is being made–both by the Trump resort and the airport.

Air Force officials could not tell the Times how many times crews had been sent to TrumpTurnberry specifically but said they are combing through vouchers to determine the exact count.

What’s more, she tweeted, “One crew member was so struck by the choice of hotel—markedly different than the Marriotts and Hiltons the 176th maintenance squadron is used to—that he texted someone close to him and said the crew’s per diem allowance wasn’t enough to cover food and drinks at the ritzy resort.”

The POTUS is reaping the whirlwind in Washington, DC, as Hurricane Dorian weakens to a tropical storm and exits Canada.

Indeed, President Donald Trump has continued to insist loudly and implacably within the past few days that a map of the projected path of Hurricane Dorian showed that Alabama “would most likely be hit” by the storm.

To prove his point, the president had gone so far as to redraw the official map of the storm’s footprint with his own Sharpie on September 4—and had sent out a volley of tweets within the past week.

Referencing archived hurricane advisories, the NOAA official said that information provided to the president and the public between August 28 and September 2 “demonstrated that tropical-storm-force winds from Hurricane Dorian could impact Alabama.”

The NOAA statement set off a firestorm among scientists, who attacked NOAA officials for bending to Trump’s will.“This looks like classic politically motivated obfuscation to justify inaccurate statements made by the boss. It is truly sad to see political appointees undermining the superb, lifesaving work of NOAA’s talented and dedicated career servant,” Jane Lubchenco, who served as NOAA administrator under President Barack Obama, told the Post..

Is the GOP “running scared”? Four states are set to cancel their 2020 Republican presidential primaries and caucuses—a move that would block President Donald Trump’s challengers from even getting on the ballot.

Republican functionaries in South Carolina, Nevada, Arizona, and Kansas are expected to announce the cancellations this weekend, three GOP officials who are familiar with the plans told Politico.

According to the political news outlet, “The moves are the latest illustration of Trump’s takeover of the entire Republican Party apparatus. They underscore the extent to which his allies are determined to snuff out any potential nuisance en route to his renomination—or even to deny Republican critics a platform to embarrass him.”

“Trump and his allies and the Republican National Committee are doing whatever they can do to eliminate primaries in certain states and make it very difficult for primary challengers to get on the ballot in a number of states,” former Representative Joe Walsh (R-Illinois), who recently launched his primary campaign against the president, told Politico, adding, “It’s wrong, the RNC should be ashamed of itself, and I think it does show that Trump is afraid of a serious primary challenge because he knows his support is very soft.”

Walsh warned,“W e intend to be on the ballot in every single state no matter what the RNC and Trump allies try to do,” Walsh added. “We also intend to loudly call out this undemocratic bull on a regular basis.”

RNC officials said they played no role in the decisions, the news outlet reported. Trump aides said they supported the cancellations—but stressed that each case was initiated by state party officials.

The shutdowns aren’t without precedent for either the Democrats or the Republicans. South Carolina GOP Chairman Drew McKissick noted that his state decided not to hold Republican presidential primaries in 1984, when Ronald Reagan was running for reelection, or in 2004, when George W. Bush was seeking a second term. South Carolina, he added, also skipped its 1996 and 2012 Democratic contests.

“As a general rule, when either party has an incumbent president in the White House, there’s no rationale to hold a primary,” McKissick said.

Officials in several states said in statements provided by the Trump campaign that they were driven by the cost savings. State parties in Nevada and Kansas foot the bill to put on caucuses.

“It would be malpractice on my part to waste money on a caucus to come to the inevitable conclusion that President Trump will be getting all our delegates in Charlotte,” Nevada GOP Chairman Michael McDonald told Politico. “We should be spending those funds to get all our candidates across the finish line instead.”

“The NRA exists to spread pro-gun propaganda and put weapons in the hands of those who would harm and terrorize us,”. Stefani said in a statement. “Nobody has done more to fan the flames of gun violence than the NRA.”

While the resolution has no practical effect,. Stefani said in an interview with the Times on Wednesday, “I firmly believe that words matter, and I think this is a step in fighting the negative impact of the NRA.”

“After much prayer over the past few days and following conversations with my wife, Gina, during that time, I have decided that my current term will be my last,” Flores, 65, who was first elected in 2010, said in the statement, posted on his House website.

Flores, a retired oil and gas executive, s serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and has been active in the Republican Study Committee, which had been the caucus of the House’s most conservative members.

Several of the Republican retirements have been in increasingly competitive districts; in three of them, GOP incumbents won reelection by fewer than five percentage points in 2018. But others are in “safer” districts, The Washington Post opined.

“It’s a center-right district,” he said. “There are a lot of thoughtful conservative leaders out there, particularly next generation, that I think will decide to serve the public and to get engaged.”

In his statement, Flores said his family had “evolved substantially” in the nearly 10 years since he first ran for Congress.

“Gina lost her father, we picked up a daughter-in-law, added four awesome grandkids and watched my Mom and Dad move further along their senior years,” Flores said. “My job as Representative has made it difficult to spend as much time with Gina and the rest of my family as I would like.”

The still-dominant Democratic frontrunner has made his ability to work with Republicans a touchstone of his presidential campaign, the network said—but he told reporters in Iowa that guns will not be an issue that can be dealt with across the aisle.

Biden’s head-to-head rival, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts), told NBC News, “[W}e know what the pieces are …— universal background checks, assault weapons off our streets, get rid of bump stocks and the ability to fire weapons in a short period of time. There are a lot of things we could be doing. So why doesn’t it happen? And the answer is corruption. It’s corruption. Right now we have a Washington that is held hostage by the gun industry and the NRA. That has to stop.”

The Trump Administration has begun denying pleas from non-citizens who wish to extend their time in the United States in order to continue receiving treatment for severe medical conditions from which they suffer. Letters issued by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and obtained by ABC News, tell those applying for medical relief that agency offices, “no longer consider deferred action requests,” except for members of the military.

Among those affected will be Serena Badia, according to ABC, a teenage girl from Spain who has undergone heart surgery five times. Three of those procedures were back in her home country, where doctors told her she wouldn’t live past age 12.

A 16-year-old with cystic fibrosis, a 13-year-old with muscular dystrophy and a 4-year-old girl with cerebral palsy are also among the children whose families received

“People are terrified and confused,” the lawyer for the young patients, Anthony Marino told ABC News. “I don’t know how people react to their government telling them to disconnect from lifesaving health care.”

And he’s willing to do almost anything to accomplish his goal. Indeed, he is supposedly considering using funding originally designated for disaster aid within the United States; urging subordinates to seize land unlawfully, and offering pardons to those who get in trouble on his behalf.

The notion of pardoning those who use illegal means to build a border wall has alarmed congressional Democrats, who had been investigating potential obstruction of justice on Trump’s part as the House continues to weigh whether to launch impeachment proceedings once lawmakers return to the Capitol next month, The Washington Post reported on August 28.

Trump on Wednesday denied that he had made those private assurances, first reported Tuesday evening by The Washington Post. Yet a White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity in advance of the report did not deny it and said Trump is joking when he makes such statements about pardons.

As Dorian picks up power in the Caribbean, hurtling ever-closer to Puerto Rico, President Donald Trump is picking up the same diatribe he used against the island’s leadership and population during Hurricane Maria, a Category 4 storm that hit the American territory in September 2017.

Indeed, Trump and local officials—specifically, San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz—have continued to trade zingers in the aftermath of 2017’s Hurricane Maria over funding, the President’s disparaging remarks about the island, and more.

Trump’s lack of empathy for Puerto Ricans has been at odds with his treatment of storm victims in the continental United States during his tenure in office, prompting criticism of racism, including from some local officials defending their home, CNN said..

Tropical storm Dorian is expected to be near a Category 1 hurricane as it approaches Puerto Rico Wednesday and could strengthen to a Category 2 hurricane before making landfall in Florida over Labor Day Weekend.

Trump declared a national emergency and ordered federal assistance to Puerto Rico on Tuesday. Yulín Cruz criticized Trump on that day, as her city prepared for another storm, telling the President to “get out of the way.”